Tiwanaku: Ancestors of the Inca - Hardcover

Margaret Young-Sanchez

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0803249217 ISBN 13: 9780803249219

Publisher: University of Nebraska Press, 2004

Synopsis

<DIV>By the shores of Lake Titicaca, the largest body of water in the South American highland, rose the city of Tiwanaku. Its megalithic structures were constructed between AD 100 and 300. By 500 Tiwanaku had become the capital of an expanding empire in the Andes that endured until approximately AD 1000, when extended drought caused water levels to fall and agriculture to fail. After European colonization many of the buildings were raided for their stone, which was used to construct churches, rail stations, and houses. Less than a day s trip from La Paz, Bolivia, Tiwanaku remains one of the most impressive archeological sites in South America.

Despite its fame and its economic, political, and artistic importance to such later peoples as the Incas, the Tiwanaku civilization has never been the subject of a comprehensive international art exhibition and accompanying catalog until now. Tiwanaku introduces American audiences to the striking artwork and fascinating rituals of this highland culture through approximately one hundred works of art and cultural treasures.

The range of media is unparalleled among ancient South American civilizations: large-scale stone sculptures, spectacular works in gold and silver, masterfully crafted ceramics, monumental architecture, gold and silver jewelry, and decoratively carved wood, bone, and stone objects. Of special note are the textiles, remarkably preserved by the dry climate of Tiwanaku s outposts in Chile and Peru. These finely crafted and richly decorated objects assembled from collections around the world evoke a vivid and comprehensive picture of elite life five hundred to one thousand years before the Inca Empire.

This lavishly illustrated, full-color catalog features insightful scholarly essays introducing the general reader to the culture and historical context of the Tiwanaku.

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About this title

About the Author

<DIV>Margaret Young-Sánchez is Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of pre-Columbian Art at the Denver Art Museum. She is an expert on the art of ancient South America, specializing in Andean textiles.</DIV>

From the Inside Flap

By the shores of Lake Titicaca, the largest body of water in the South American highland, rose the city of Tiwanaku. Its megalithic structures were constructed between AD 100 and 300. By 500 Tiwanaku had become the capital of an expanding empire in the Andes that endured until approximately AD 1000, when extended drought caused water levels to fall and agriculture to fail. After European colonization many of the buildings were raided for their stone, which was used to construct churches, rail stations, and houses. Less than a day s trip from La Paz, Bolivia, Tiwanaku remains one of the most impressive archeological sites in South America.

Despite its fame and its economic, political, and artistic importance to such later peoples as the Incas, the Tiwanaku civilization has never been the subject of a comprehensive international art exhibition and accompanying catalog until now. Tiwanaku introduces American audiences to the striking artwork and fascinating rituals of this highland culture through approximately one hundred works of art and cultural treasures.

The range of media is unparalleled among ancient South American civilizations: large-scale stone sculptures, spectacular works in gold and silver, masterfully crafted ceramics, monumental architecture, gold and silver jewelry, and decoratively carved wood, bone, and stone objects. Of special note are the textiles, remarkably preserved by the dry climate of Tiwanaku s outposts in Chile and Peru. These finely crafted and richly decorated objects assembled from collections around the world evoke a vivid and comprehensive picture of elite life five hundred to one thousand years before the Inca Empire.

This lavishly illustrated, full-color catalog features insightful scholarly essays introducing the general reader to the culture and historical context of the Tiwanaku.

Margaret Young-Sánchez is Frederick and Jan Mayer Curator of pre-Columbian Art at the Denver Art Museum. She is an expert on the art of ancient South America, specializing in Andean textiles.

Reviews

*Starred Review* Bolivia's Tiwanaku flourished between 200 and 1000 C.E. as a capital city that, at its height, housed 40,000, with a half-million in the surrounding area. Domestication of llamas and alpacas by nomadic herders, plus subsequent development of irrigated, raised-field agriculture, including fish raised in the canals, created a productive agricultural system. The resultant high culture, however, was lost by the sixteenth century because it lacked a writing system, and consequently knowledge of Tiwanaku comes from archaeological digs. This lavishly illustrated catalog examines the arts, with an emphasis on textiles, and culture in scholarly essays that also discuss the city's religion, layout, and architecture, as well as the contemporaneous Wari civilization in Peru. Photographs and drawings abound, including aerial views and documentation of portrait ceramics and gold discs. Despite its importance to Incan culture, Tiwanaku is too little known, a lack this surpassing volume will help correct. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803249217
• ISBN 13: 9780803249219
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 257
• Editor: Margaret Young-Sanchez